Latest / Connectivity Without Chaos - The Podcast / SaaS is easy to buy. Governing it is considerably harder.

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SaaS is easy to buy. Governing it is considerably harder. · Connectivity Without Chaos - The Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to today's deep dive.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: So usually when you buy a critical tool for your business, it's a physical object, right?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like a server sitting in a cold room somewhere.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can literally point to it and say, you know, there is our investment.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: But today we're dicing into some research from Provision Networks about
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: a totally invisible landscape.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: The massive world of company software subscriptions.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or, as the industry calls it, sauce.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And just to set some ground rules right out of the gate here for you listening,
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: it is pronounced like sassy, but without the Y, sass.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, please don't say sauce.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: It is absolutely not pronounced like sauce.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone who calls it sauce is, I mean, they're just fundamentally untrustworthy.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: I completely agree.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: So our mission today is to figure out why companies are totally losing control
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: of these sauce environments.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: How to fix that blind spot without just blindly deleting the tools people actually use.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the root of that blind spot is actually,
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: ironically, the best thing about sauce, which is the sheer convenience of it.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, think about how easy it is at home to...
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Just sign up for like a dozen streaming platforms on a total whim.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Just because you want to watch like one specific movie on each of them.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now scale that behavior up to a massive corporate level.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: You've got a whole department that realizes they need a new project management tool, right?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: They have a Friday deadline.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they don't want to wait three months for official IT procurement.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: They just whip out a corporate credit card, pay for it and start working.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Which completely bypasses, you know, traditional security and budget checks.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: And suddenly you've got dozens of applications running in the background that
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: the central office doesn't even know exists.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like total chaos.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, they aren't doing it maliciously, right?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: No, not at all.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody is trying to bleed company cash.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a structural visibility issue.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I see.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, finance sees a credit card charge for $50 a month,
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: but they have no idea who's actually logging in.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: IT sees user identities connecting to apps, but they're totally blind to the financial terms.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So nobody sees the whole picture.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone is holding one piece of a puzzle,
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: but they don't even realize they're building it together.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly it.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my first instinct as a manager would be to just...
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Freeze everything.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, make a giant inventory spreadsheet of every app we own and just manage it manually.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that massive spreadsheet gives you a really comforting illusion of control.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: But it's entirely static.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean by static?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: The literal second you hit save, that document is outdated.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: It fundamentally can't track the reality of a fast moving business.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because things change daily.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: It won't elute you when the intern who bought some niche design software leaves the company.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it certainly won't track silent auto renewals in the background.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And a spreadsheet definitely can tell you if someone is actually using the software,
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: which brings up what Provision Networks calls shelfware.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Shelfware is a huge issue.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: See,
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I always assume shelfware just meant an app that nobody ever opens just sitting on
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: the digital shelf.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: It is that, but they point out a much more expensive drain.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, imagine an employee who absolutely needs a tool,
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: but they're sitting on a top tier premium license when they only ever use
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: the basic entry level features.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And a spreadsheet just sees active license.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: And have no idea you're overpaying.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's why the only actual solution to this sprawl is continuous managed governance.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right, because you need a system that actively analyzes actual usage patterns.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right, instead of just logging assigned seats.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: And this continuous approach means you get ahead of renewal notice periods, too.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Which is huge, because don't vendor contracts sometimes weaponize those dates?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely they do.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Knowing your billing cycle hits on December 1st is entirely useless if
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: the fine print required a 60-day cancellation notice.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right, because by December you're already locked in for another full year.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So tying that continuous monitoring directly into automated employee onboarding
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: and offboarding, that seems crucial for closing security loopholes too, right?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: When you automate offboarding, you instantly revoke access across the board.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you aren't relying on an employee to manually hand over passwords.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right, especially for shadow IT apps that central security didn't even know they bought.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: It neutralizes the threat instantly.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I have to push back here for a second, though.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: I hear continuous managed governance, and I immediately picture IT acting like the fun police.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: The fun police.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like a central authority swooping in to cancel all
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: the specialized tools my team actually likes.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Just forcing everyone onto clunky corporate standards.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I get that fear.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: But good governance is never about just cutting tools at any cost.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So what is it about?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's about establishing a repeatable discipline to ask one simple question.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Does this specific tool justify its risk and its cost?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: That makes more sense.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Provision Networks emphasizes that the core goal is maintaining productivity safely.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's about matching the right employee to the exact right application and license level.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right,
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: so they can do their best work rather than just enforcing a blanket prohibition
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: on new apps.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the core takeaway for you listening today is
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: that managing your company's software is a daily discipline, right?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just an annual cleanup.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, every single subscription must continuously earn its place.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: It requires a shift away from that fragmented chaos we talked about.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right, moving into a unified view where IT,
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: finance, and leadership are all looking at the exact same digital landscape.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Could not have said it better myself.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that brings us to a final provocative thought.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: I want to leave you to ponder.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Think about your own organization today.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's a scary thought.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: If a key employee left your organization this afternoon,
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: How many unseen shadow IT applications would still have their active access
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: credentials sitting there completely unchecked?